600 000 euros for the education of disabled people in the country

Close to 600 000 euros will be invested in a project of Literacy and Adult Education Inclusive in Mozambique whose target group is vulnerable, particularly disabled most notably for the blind. The project is funded by the European Union (EU), with 75% of the total funding, and the remaining 25% financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ). The availability of this amount was announced Tuesday in Maputo, during the launch of the project itself for Literacy and Adult Education Inclusive in Mozambique by the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Association for Adult Education (DVV International) and Association of Blind and Partially Sighted Moçambique.Este project will cover only two provinces country, namely Maputo and Sofala, and will be implemented for a period of three years (2012-2015). It is estimated that the same project could be around 100 000 young and adult illiterates or semi-literate in two províncias.Segundo was revealed, the project in question is intended to contribute to the provision, integration of literacy and academic skill building for vulnerable groups particularly people with disabilities at the meeting físicas.Falando, Laurindo Nhacume, national director of Adult Education, recognized the importance of the project, claiming that the Government has not yet been able to respond to the educational requirements of the disabled especially the blind. Nhacume regretted that there are still many disabled people in the country outside the national education system, for alleged inadequacies of programs and special technical literacy of this vulnerable group.

Meanwhile, David Harrington, director of the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Association for Adult Education (DVV International), said the project fits now released under the contribution of their guild "DVV International" to promote equal opportunities through the process of providing access to education. The source is committed to the Institute for International Cooperation of the German Association for Adult Education (DVV International) continue to fund projects of access to education to reduce illiteracy rates, especially among vulnerable groups, particularly the blind.

Another problem that complicates the process of teaching and learning for the blind is the lack of teaching materials facing the visually impaired. This situation has been frustrating the intentions of the disabled to escolarizarem, revealed the second representative of the Association of Blind and Partially Sighted of Mozambique, during the launch of the draft Literacy and Adult Education in Inclusive Moçambique.A source said that the draft literacy can greatly reduce the level of illiteracy that affects many blind. However, he appealed to the spread of this project to other provinces to cover a greater number of disabled visuais.Refira is concerned that the project will only cover two provinces, namely Maputo and Sofala. (A. Frades)

Distracted deceive PRESIDENT

Just three days after the president left the province of Nampula, just theater. Everything returned to normal. The mechanized efforts that were undertaken to keep clean the streets of the city during the recent visit by Guebuza, no longer exists. The city of Nampula, the capital of the province's most populous country, has returned to what it always was. Nampula is once again a dirty city and the streets that were disguised holes are back to being what they always were.

During the stay in so-called "open presidency" Armando Guebuza saw what was prepared to keep you distracted. Rehabilitated roads saw the rush - however badly - saw some cleaning which in its day-to-day not nampulenses has fun. Trucks and other large machinery "caliber" to disappear again. The City Council that mobilized this world and that to ensure cleaner for the "boss" see, after Guebuza sail back to the usual sloppiness that the city council voted Nampula.

The same work was done three days ago with machinery to match, is now guaranteed again with hand shovels and brooms plastic, these mostly wrested from street vendors, in operations against the informal trade or walking.

On the morning of Saturday, visited a few streets and avenues named the capital of the north. We observed in situ, the city council workers working again without the minimum conditions of security.At the junction between the streets Philip Samuel Magic (Flower Street) and Moma street, witnessed the city council workers engaged on construction and land development area to plug small holes again on hand to ensure that the participants of the VII National Festival of Culture, ended yesterday in Nampula, could circulate.

Some workers spoke to Canalmoz and made clear that the president was up and everything was again as before. "Our job is just plugging some holes. As you can see we do not have such equipment. What we saw is over. The City Council asked for help to the CMC-Southern Africa, to support the plugging of holes. We do not have the capacity nor the means to do so. "

Workers assured that the work of last Saturday was being coordinated by engineer Iva Langa, the City Council. (A.Silva)

GUEBUZA CALLS FOR "AGGRESSIVE" ROAD STRATEGY

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza declared on Tuesday that the country needs “an aggressive strategy” to respond to the growing needs for road construction and maintenance in the rural areas.Speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the government of the Chitunda administrative post, in Muidumbe district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Guebuza said that such a strategy would require that road building and maintenance materials should be stored under the responsibility of each of the country’s 128 districts.He stressed the problems caused to rural producers by badly maintained roads. Farmers grew crops, Guebuza said, only to find that they are unable to take their surplus to market, because the rural roads are so poor.He was speaking after a rally in Chitunda, at which several people asked him to intervene to ensure the opening or rehabilitation of access roads that would facilitate the movement of produce, and also allow ambulances to take sick people to the nearest hospital.Guebuza stressed that the Mozambican state has decentralized resources to district level, precisely in order to meet the needs for basic infrastructure.Some years ago, the government decided to allocate 2.5 million meticais a year from the state budget to each district for infrastructures. That infrastructure fund has now risen to seven million meticais (about 250,000 US dollars) per district per year.“There are many people who can’t sell their produce because the roads either do not exist or are in poor condition”, said Guebuza. “So why is part of this sum not being used to acquire road building equipment?”

The President added that he believes that loans from commercial banks can be obtained to acquire road construction or maintenance equipment, and the district governments could use the infrastructure fund to pay off the loans. He suggested that two or more districts could enter into partnerships in order to acquire this equipment. In most of the rallies Guebuza has addressed during his “open and inclusive presidency” local residents have complained of the damaging consequences of the poor rural road network.

VIOLENT SOLDIERS ARRESTED

Mozambican Defence Minister Filipe Nyussi has confirmed the arrest of soldiers accused of carrying out beatings and rapes in Mahlampswene, an outlying neighbourhood of the southern city of Matola.A report carried on Tuesday by the independent daily “O Pais” cited Mahlampswene residents complaining bitterly about the behaviour of soldiers based in the local barracks. In particular, they accused the soldiers of beating up nine civilians, and raping two girls last Friday night.Reacting to these accusations, Nyussi told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the four soldiers concerned have been identified and arrested. They are now in the custody of the military police.Nyussi said the four committed their crimes after they had gone drinking. He said the beatings, rapes and thefts reported were the responsibility of the four men as citizens, and not as soldiers. They were not acting under any command from their superiors, he said, and their violent behaviour should not be blamed on the Mozambican armed forces (FADM) as a whole.But a report published on Wednesday by the daily paper “Noticias”, citing neighbourhood official Orlando Mahumane, puts the number of soldiers involved in the disturbances at “more than 15”.According to Mahumane, the problem started when three soldiers got into a brawl with local residents in the Mahlampswene market. The three were overpowered and thrown out of the market. Shortly afterwards, they returned with reinforcements to retaliate. Mahumane said they lashed out indiscriminately at anyone in the market, and also attacked passers-by. They tore the shirts off their victims’ backs and stole mobile phones and money from them.Mahumane said he had been due to discuss the matter with the barracks commander on Monday, but the meeting did not occur because the commander decided to remit the case to his superiors.The FADM has now set up a commission to deal with the matter, which plans to hold a meeting with the Mahlampswene population on Wednesday.

REN BECOMES CAHORA BASSA SHAREHOLDER

The Portuguese energy company REN (Redes Energeticas Nacionais) has announced the completion of 7.5 per cent of the shares of Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), the company that operates the Cahora Bassa dam in the western Mozambican province of Tete.These shares were owned by the Portuguese state, and selling them to REN was part of the agreement reached between the Mozambican and Portuguese governments in April, during the visit to Maputo by Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.Via the company that manages Portuguese public shareholdings, Parpublica, the Lisbon government was to sell off the 15 per cent that it still held in HCB. REN was to pay 38.4 million euros (48.2 million US dollars) for its 7.5 per cent, while the other 7.5 per cent would be sold to HCB itself for 58.6 million euros.The deal was subject to the consent of a general meeting of HCB shareholders – consent that was easily obtained given that the only shareholders are the Mozambican and Portuguese states. The REN statement announced that the 7.5 per cent (slightly more than two million shares) was transferred to REN on Tuesday.REN also confirmed that it “intends to reposition itself in the Mozambican energy market, particularly in the energy transmission market”.This includes the possibility of taking part in the construction of CESUL – a new transmission line running from the Zambezi valley southwards to Maputo, and generally referred to as the “backbone” of the Mozambican electricity grid. REN hopes to be a “technological partner and services provider” for this project, through purchasing holdings in companies directly or indirectly owned by the Mozambican electricity distribution company, EDM.In exchange for its participation in CESUL, REN will gradually relinquish its holding in HCB. This is effectively a swap – REN will acquire shares in the EDM companies involved in CESUL, in exchange for its HCB shares. As a result, within two years Mozambique will own 100 per cent of HCB.CESUL is crucial to the future of energy supply in Mozambique, and the country’s exports of electricity, because the existing line, from Cahora Bassa to the Apollo substation in South Africa, cannot carry any more power. More power stations are planned for Tete. These include a second power station at Cahora Bassa (on the north bank of the Zambezi), a new dam at Mepanda Nkua, 60 kilometres downstream from Cahora Bassa, and coal-fired power stations that will use the lower-grade coal that mining companies do not export. This power can only reach its intended markets, in central and southern Mozambique, and in South Africa, if new transmission lines are built. The estimated cost of Cesul is about 1.8 billion US dollars.

At least, very strange

On the one hand the President prefers to face the critics for its governance as "apostles of doom", "talkative", "distracted" and others who accounts for those words and come to a conclusion: "Armando Guebuza is very poorly advised and through it has been losing the necessary balance expected of a Head of State ", which is either representative of all Mozambicans, regardless of its form of thought. This is the view Ericino Salema, one of the voices of civil society in Mozambique.

Director of the program "Access to Information" of the IBIS (Danish organization), Salema, a journalist and lawyer by training and has been very attentive to the unfolding socio-political life of the country says not understand how anyone (Armando Guebuza) uses the Facebook to ask for votes and have all sorts of messages of interest, and soon after was insurja Facebook when it is used by people to collect the promises that were made during the election campaign. "Our president is at least very strange," he says.

Being young, made ​​no effort to complete that does not feel represented by the National Youth Council. The justification could not be more interesting is that in his opinion the CNJ that theoretically should be a platform representing the interests of all Mozambican youth regardless of their ideological belief, intertwined with a Department last step of the Mozambican Youth Organisation, Frelimo's youth arm. That is the CNJ comply with the decisions and wishes of OJM.

About the process of revising the Constitution proposed by the Frelimo parliamentary group in parliament says that so far has been presented does not cease to be "pathetic" and believes that what has been said that there are organizations that will be used to propose a revision to the Frelimo party want.

NUMBER OF TAXPAYERS TO REACH TWO MILLION

Mozambique’s Tax Authority (AT) expects the country to have two million registered taxpayers by the end of this year, up from 1,789,000 in 2011. This represents about 17 per cent of the workforce.According to the chair of the Tax Authority, Rosario Fernandes, “our plan, as agreed by the Assembly of the Republic, is to raise 95.5 billion meticais (about 3.4 billion US dollars). That is an 18 per cent increase compared to last year when tax revenues raised 81.1 million meticais (2.9 billion dollars)”.

Fernandes stated that in 2011 the Tax Authority managed a tax ratio (the ratio of tax collection compared to the national gross domestic product) of 21.8 per cent, which he stated was the highest since the country’s independence in 1975.However, this tax ratio is still below the level of convergence of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which is set at 25 per cent.Raising more revenue from taxation is of growing importance because Mozambique’s dependence on foreign aid has been declining in recent years.According to the state budget for 2012, only 39.6 per cent of public expenditure will be covered by foreign grants and loans, with 60.4 per cent of the budget met by domestic resources. In last year’s budget 44.6 per cent of expenditure was to be covered by foreign aid, while in the 2010 budget the figure was 51.4 per cent.The downward trend is expected to continue, in part due to the current financial crisis faced by most donor countries.

LEVEL OF MALNUTRITION REMAINS UNACCEPTABLY HIGH: SETSAN

Mozambique’s Food and Nutritional Security Technical Secretariat (SETSAN) has lamented that chronic malnutrition remains at an unacceptably high levels, damaging the country’s development.Speaking in Maputo during a seminar to discuss Mozambique’s strategy for orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP), SETSAN National Coordinator Marcela Libombo explained that the current rate of poverty in the country stands at 54.7 per cent.According to Libombo, “we urgently need to find holistic solutions to improve access to food, nutritional education, personal hygiene and sanitation in order to improve the situation”.

The seminar was organized by the non-governmental organisation Helen Keller International in partnership with the Mozambican government, through SETSAN, as part of the project Reaching Agents of Change (RAC).

Dercio Matale from RAC explained that the event sought to mobilize at least six million US dollars to encourage the cultivation of OFSP in Mozambique. The sweet potatoes have high quantities of vitamin A.

According to a survey last year, the level of chronic malnutrition in Mozambique stands at 43 per cent, while micronutrient deficiency affects about two thirds of pre-school age children and is one of the causes of infant mortality.Meanwhile, a study published by SETSAN in 2006 showed that food insecurity affects 36 per cent of the Mozambican population.

“These figures are too high and reflect the cruellest human manifestation of poverty”, said Libombo, who supports promoting OFSP as part of a bio-fortification strategy.According to SETSAN, this is an approach based on foods that can be grown by communities while offering a sustainable, low cost and rapid access to micronutrients.OFSP was re-launched in the country after the floods of 2000. Since then the National Institute of Agronomic Research (IIAM) has distributed over 300,000 seedlings and approved 18 new varieties.Participants acknowledged that while Mozambique has a set of policies aimed at improving food security and nutrition, none of them mentions bio-fortification as a viable, low cost and easy dissemination strategy to solve the problem of malnutrition.In addition, it was agreed that there is a lack of resources to allow the rapid dissemination of OFSP across the country.In Mozambique, only about 300,000 households grow OFSP, with an annual production estimated at 800,000 tonnes.According to Matale, it is hoped to persuade another 200,000 families to grow OFSP over the next two years, which would bring the potato’s nutritional benefits to 600,000 families.

GUEBUZA CALLS FOR SUSTAINABLE RUBY MINING IN MSAWIS

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Thursday urged residents of the administrative post of Msawise, in the northern province of Niassa, to exploit mineral resources in a sustainable and wise manner, including rubies which are found in fair amounts in that region.

Guebuza, who was addressing a rally in the district of Mavago as part of his “open presidency” started on Tuesday, added that this is one of the major challenges faced by Mozambicans. According to Guebuza, everybody wants his share from country’s wealth, particularly when those riches are found bellow the ground, but often the exploitation of those resources is carried out in a disorganised manner.

'The government intends to improve the mining of rubies in Msawise, which should benefit all local residents”, explained Guebuza, answering to concerns raised by the local residents, who complained that local authorities have forced a number of people to stop their activities.

Ascimo Mbwana, one of the residents, told President Guebuza that there is plenty of wealth beneath the ground in Msawise, which is not benefiting anyone because of police actions.

'When the mines were discovered they used to generate plenty of wealth for the local population, but now we are being chased away by the police. Now, our life standard has degenerated”, complained Mbwana.A report from the local government presented to Guebuza, states that one of the obstacles for Msawise’s development 'is the delay in the legalization of area with ruby deposits, which could benefit the local population”.In the recent past, Msawise was invaded by foreigners who used to mine rubies illegally, but they were later expelled by the local authorities. During the rally, the residents also asked for the increase of the “Seven Million Meticais Fund“, construction of another bridge over the Rovuma River to ease the movement of people and goods between Mozambique and the neighbouring Tanzania, better roads, potable water and schools, among other facilities. As for the 'Seven Million Meticais,' Guebuza said its increase will depend on how it is managed by the beneficiaries themselves.

'That's why we always mention the need to repay the borrowed money in order to benefit more people. In fact, the government has already increased the money it allocates to each district”, said Guebuza, adding that now “the fund has grown and varies according to the area and number of inhabitants in each district”.

Commonly referred to as “the seven million”, this Fund began with the allocation of seven million meticais (251,000 US dollars at current exchange rates) from the state budget to each of the districts, to support small projects that would enhance food security and create jobs. The original idea was that this should be a revolving fund. Beneficiaries would repay the money lent to them, and these repayments would replenish the fund, which would cease to rely exclusively on the central state budget.But so far repayment levels remain too low.